This invention relates to backpacks that can be used by firefighters and hikers to carry equipment while moving from place to place.
Firefighters sometimes carry air tanks or water tanks while working in smoky or fire-laden atmospheres.
S. Carter U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,643 shows a firefighter backpack that includes a flexible water tank having a hose connection to a hand-held water pump. L. Cappes U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,654 shows a backpack usable by runners and skiers to support bottle-type containers for water or other liquids.
Backpacks used by firefighters usually include a panel (equipment support) positionable on the person's back, and two laterally-spaced shoulder straps adapted to extend from the panel over the wearer's shoulders and downwardly onto his chest area. Side straps extend from edges of the panel forwardly to connect with the shoulder straps. The side straps continue onto the front of the wearer to form a belt structure around the waist and/or chest area of the firefighter. Mating buckle components on the free ends of the belt elements lock the belt structure in place. Usually there is an upper belt structure adapted to encircle the wearer's chest and a lower belt structure adapted to encircle the wearer's waist.
Frequently firefighters must put on their backpacks quickly in order to move as rapidly as possible into a fire zone for rescue or fire suppression purposes. When the previous wearer of the backpack was of a different physical size than the person then attempting to put on the backpack it becomes difficult to quickly fit the belt structures to the person's chest and/or waist. Each belt structure must first be lengthened or shortened, depending on whether the present wearer is fatter or thinner than the previous wearer.
The use of conventional buckle structures is not conducive to rapid major changes in effective belt length, i.e. changes greater than about one foot. In the case of major changes in belt length the entire belt must be shifted circumferentially in order to keep the buckle components on the frontal area of the wearer. Such shifting is often difficult to accomplish rapidly because the belt must be simultaneously pulled and/or pushed through a multiple number of belt loops.
The present invention proposes a backpack having one or more belt structures that are capable of rapid changes in belt length without the need for bodily shifting such belt structures circumferentially or through belt-retention loops.